Desiderata
by Boredom at its Pinnacle
Summary: When ThunderClan leader and deputy are both found dead on the same night; the world of warriors is thrown into complete turmoil. But the next successive leader turns out to be the least of the cat's problems. Rated T for violence.
1. Night of the Dead

**This is probably my first published attempt at a fan-fic, and unlike some of my previous work, I plan to see it though to the end. Enjoy!**

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At night the forest was as still and as ominous as the moon itself. Darkness and silence hung over the waters of the oil black lake like a thick blanket. Nothing stirred, the forest was asleep. The low hoot of an owl in the distance broke the silence for a moment, but like everything else that too subsided.

Through the dead to the world forest stole a cat with the grace of a swan. Her long fur was surprisingly well kept for a wild cat. She paused for a moment, and lifted her muzzle to drink in the air. Someone was waiting for her; it was just a matter of her finding him. She waltzed along the bank of the lake, when she saw something stir in the bushes. Her fur rose slightly in anticipation - was it him?

She poked her head around the cluster of river weeds, expecting to see her leader, but instead, there in a shard of moonlight, her jaw fell. As she approached it, the entire atmosphere felt unnaturally cold. She even noticed the faintest rising of frost around the object of her attention. What she was looking at was clearly lifeless, but even so she crouched down near it with some caution, for she was faced with a monstrous creation. Was it an omen from StarClan, or perhaps one from the dark forest?

It was a raven with its beak buried deep into the ground and one broken wing fanned out wide. She peered closer and recoiled like she had touched an electric fence. The bird wasn't a raven. It had been hit by lightning.

The bird had been half burnt open, so that its blackened spine is visible. The feathers are charcoal black and frayed, ash from the bird's feathers scattered on the ground. Quickly, she stuck out a paw and batted it, snapping her paw back to her body almost immediately. The bird had been burnt, but it was as cold as ice. Her green eyes wide, the she cat backed away, hissing and spitting at the dead bird. She backed up, not into a tree, but into flesh. Warm flesh.

She hissed and spun around; aiming a swipe at the thing she had butted into in fright. The instant her paw had made contact with the other cat, she realised her mistake. It was her leader, Ghoststar, the cat she had been waiting for.

"What's got you so on edge?" asked the pale tabby tom

The bird was in the other clearing, out of Ghoststar's sight. The she cat decided not to mention it. It was probably just a bird that had been hit by lightning and had cooled down in the rain afterward. "Nothing" she lied, trying to push the ashen feathers, burnt, shrivelled eyes and strangely angled wing out of her mind.

He chuckled a little. "You're usually quite calm. It's no matter, really." but then his tone turned serious, and his olive eyes hardened, "But you and I have business to discuss"

She nodded, still not sure why they had to meet at the dead of night as opposed to just talking in the leader's den, but she didn't mind.

"I'm going to check if that clearing is isolated enough" he said, "Wait for my signal before following me"

The ghostly pale tom cat stepped into a large clearing, deep in the heart of ThunderClan territory. His olive green eyes scanned the area. It looked safe enough. He mewed a signal for her to follow, and then he waited.

And waited.

His brow furrowed in confusion. He had waited at least two long minutes for her. All of a sudden, his ears were greeted with a deafening _crack_, a crack with the same velocity as the sound of a cricket ball being met with a cricket bat on its sweet spot. The crack was followed by the most ear splitting of screams and then silence. Startled, he sprinted back to where he left her and found her, still and lifeless, her neck broken and flipped right back in the most unnatural of ways. A little bit of her spine had split her skin and jutted out of her throat, her lifeless eyes staring at the stars in horror.

Ghoststar recoiled in horror, his bottle green eyes wide. The sound of a twig snapping came from behind him, and the tom wheeled around in fear, only to be met with nothing. Suddenly, he felt his legs snap and give way underneath him as something fell from above him onto him. His attacker had leaped from a tree, down onto the unsuspecting tom cat. The killer wasted no time. The killer slashed at Ghoststar's neck, whose skin split like a grape. The killer burrowed its long muzzle into the howling leader's fur, latching its hooked teeth onto his wind pipe. The killer gave a sharp tug and pulled the inside of Ghoststar's throat out, before vanishing into the shadows, leaving behind nothing except two lifeless corpses.


	2. Of a Gathering and Bad Weather

**Well, hopefully you weren't scared off by last chapter. Thanks for continuing to read. Gah, I finished this at around midnight. Sorry if the wording gets a bit confusing down the bottom; boy I was tired.**

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"The deaths of both the leader, Ghoststar, and deputy, Russetflight, are being treated as linked," announced the bold medicine of ThunderClan, Ocelotfur. His thick, golden spotted fur shone pink and yellow in the evening light as he addressed the cats of all four clans at the gathering.

"What are you going to do now?" piped up Clawstar, the young leader of WindClan, "I mean, both your leader and deputy are dead!"

"Hush, Clawstar" said the wise leader of ShadowClan, Pebblestar, she glared the younger tom in the eye until he backed down in embarrassment, "I hardly think it's your turn to speak"

I observed this scene with a tilted head. My whiskers twitched in amusement at Pebblestar's retort, but mainly my expressions remained grim. Like the rest of my ThunderClan members, I was shocked by the sudden, gory deaths of both the leader and deputy of our clan.

Ocelotfur speaks again. The golden tom cat has an amazing stage presence, his entire voice fills the large area and everyone can hear him very clearly. "I am going to consult StarClan tonight," he said, "I will see what wisdom they inflict upon me to give to our clan"

I knew those words by heart. Ocelotfur had been practicing this all day around the clearing. Even as I looked around at my fellow ThunderClan members, a few of them were mouthing Ocelotfur's words right as he said them. I had not seen the bodies of Ghoststar and Russetflight, but those who had said it was the worst thing they had ever laid eyes on, gleaming entrails spurting out of Ghoststar's throat and glistening in the moonlight, Russetflight's spine broken and sticking through her neck like a needle through thread … I had stopped listening then. It got all too grotesque.

Shuddering as I pictured the disquieting scene, I looked back up at Ocelotfur to try to get the entire event out of my mind. The clan was filled with worry, but tonight it would all be resolved. Ocelotfur had inspected the bodies of the two cats, and said that both the leader and the deputy had been killed by a cat, not by a badger or dog as was first thought.

At the end of the gathering, the four clans went their separate directions. I followed, the thick silence of the night oozing into my eardrums. My good friend Stormheart was flanked beside me, his thick grey fur pressed against my long calico coat. Everyone in the clan looked frightened or wary to a degree, as they all knew very well that the forest wasn't safe at night.

Back at the camp, the entirety of ThunderClan breathed a sigh of relief, including those who didn't come on the trip. Several cats rushed up to the party who had gone, asking if they were okay, if we had seen anything suspicious or anything like that. We could do nothing but collaboratively mew "No" and shake our heads.

There was not much on the food pile to satisfy my growling stomach. We lived in lean times, and both Stormheart and I had to share one scrawny mouse. It did little to satisfy both our hunger.

We retired to our nests early, as there was an electric storm brewing on the horizon. The night was filled with bursts of lightning, claps of thunder and a pattering of rain. The bony bodies of the rest of the ThunderClan cats shivered violently with every fresh burst of wind and rain that flew into the south facing den.

The morning bought no better weather with it. The wind howled through the trees, making the branches groan. The sky was overcast and light misty rain drizzled from the heavens, so that every cat's fur had thin drops of rain clinging to their pelts. Not many kits had survived this year; the lack of food had killed them. The few that had survived were as thin as sticks, with very visible rib cages. In fact, every ThunderClan cat was not much more than a skeleton and a fur coat.

Ocelotfur stepped on top of high rock. He had taken over the role as leader until he was to consult StarClan tomorrow. He didn't even have to command the cats toward him, as soon as they saw him they began to amble toward high rock. They knew the drill.

"I would ask the close friends and family of Ghoststar and Russetflight to please step forward." he said, "We would ask them to bury the cats and share their last goodbyes with them before the rest of the clan mourns the loss" A few cats looked confused; this wasn't the usual tradition, but the friends and family of the deceased stepped forward none the less.

I recognised the she cat, Flamingpelt. Her fiery ginger tabby fur stood out amongst the rest of the dull pelts of the other cats. Tears were trickling down her cheeks. She had barely stopped crying ever since her sister had died. Stormheart and I watched as the small party of cats walked away and cringed as we heard them gasp, scream and sob upon seeing the grotesque and lifeless bodies of their kin.

Stormheart turned away to look at me with those big, stormy blue eyes of his. He shook his fur free of the tiny little dew drops of water, a few of them splattered onto me.

"Fishfeather" I cringed when the grey tom addressed me

I always loathed my name; _Fishfeather_. Every cat knows that fish don't have feathers, I mean, what was Ghoststar thinking? And mum, naming me after a stinky, sloppy, slimy, wet creature ... why couldn't she have named me after something gallant, gracious and brave, like a wolf or a stag? Fish are dumb. Dumb and smelly.

I shuddered and looked at him, an annoyed gleam in my yellow eyes. "Yes, Stormheart?" I said, a growl in my annoyingly high voice. I wish it would hurry up and break, it's pretty hard for fellow clan members to take me seriously when I sound like a mouse on helium.

"Did you notice how plump the other cats looked at the gathering?" he whispered at me

"Personally, I don't take my time looking at how fat other cats are," I said, envious at Stormheart's beautiful, rich, low voice. I was in a bad mood from lack of sleep. The freezing rain had kept me awake all night.

He chose to ignore my angry outburst. "This means that only ThunderClan cats are suffering from this famine"

"So?"

"So," he says, a cunning gleam in his sky blue eyes, "Tonight, my friend, we steal"

It wasn't the stealing bit that got me worried. When we were apprentices, Stormheart and I caused great trouble with the other clans, stealing toads from ShadowClan to see what they tasted like, trying to catch hares and failing miserably, falling into RiverClan's river ... The bit that worried me was the _tonight_ part.

"Night?" I squeaked, "You want us to go out there," I jerked my head toward the howling trees, "At night?"

He nodded, smiling.

"Stormheart, are you off your rocker? The last cats who ventured out of the clan at night were Ghoststar and Russetflight, and look what happened to _them_!"

"But imagine the look on the clans faces when we return with bountiful amounts of prey ..." Stormheart had a dreamy look on his face

"I'm sure it would be great, but aren't you scared?"

"_Scared?_ I'm not scared of anything"


	3. No Courage without Fear

I'm too old to be afraid of the things that used to scare me when I was a kit. I know that monsters don't exist and I also know that wolves don't live in these parts. Whenever I used to cry about being scared, my dad would come into the Nursery and ask me what he was scared of.

I would then recite everything that scared me, dogs, rats, the Loch Ness Monster, other clan cats, famine, hunger, sickness ... and dad would keep shaking his head until I ran out of things that scared me. Then he would lean in and whisper, "You know what I'm scared of, Fishkit?" he would then say, his yellow eyes that were so like mine gleaming like little stars, "I'm scared of nothing"

What scares me now is a fear of the unknown. Especially after the leader and deputy's deaths. The forest that is so welcoming in the day seems foreboding and ominous during the night time hours. Stormheart and I were the only creatures that stirred. We made our way through the bracken filled undergrowth of ThunderClan territory, emerging at a clearing near the bank of the lake.

We turned left and silently made our way to ShadowClan territory. The noises of the day was what I was used to. To me, silence was the chatter of birds, wind in the trees and the babbling of a river. To me, a scene being completely quiet meant no cat talking. To me, stillness was the occasional ripple in a lake. But to the night, silence meant silence. No breeze through the trees, no bird song, no water flowing, nothing. It was almost as if the thrum of life had vanished, like Stormheart and I were the two sole beings left on the planet.

"Bravery is by far the kindest word for stupidity," my old mentor once told me, "Being scared of something does not make you a lesser cat, for there is no courage without fear"

My entire life, I have held those words of wisdom dear to my heart. Every single step I take, his words ring in my ear. His disembodied voice is solace, solace from the silence of the night.

An ear-splitting snap of a twig being broken filled the forest. Both Stormheart and I jump in fright.

"Wha- what was that?" I practically squeal, my already high pitched voice raised an octave or two in fright

"I'm sure it was nothing" said Stormheart, trying to keep a brave face, but I could see that he was frightened out of his wits as well.

We were incredibly wary for the entire next leg of our journey. In fact, "wary" seems like a bit of an understatement. We were nearly jumping out of our skins. When a large crow suddenly flew over our heads, cawing like a nutcase, I screamed.

"Sh!" said Stormheart, even though his fur was ruffled and his eyes wide, "Do you want to get caught? You made enough noise to wake the dead!"

Instantly, I thought of Russetflight and Ghoststar and how they had met their fate this time last night. A tremor of pure terror leapt down my spine. "God, Stormheart, I wish you hadn't said that" My ears suddenly pricked up. "Hey, Stormheart, do you hear that?"

He frowned and lifted his ears up a little higher. Suddenly he gave a jolt of surprise. "Yes, yes I do"

In the not too far off distance, there was the sound of paw steps. Not mouse paw steps, not dog paw steps, these definitely came from a cat. We both turned around, very slowly. A pair of glowing, amber eyes were just visible, watching us through the reeds and coming closer.

No courage without fear, I should have been telling myself, but instead my mind was numb. There was no doubt we were faced with a killer, faced with the same fate that met Russetflight and Ghoststar. They would find our mauled bodies tomorrow. After tonight, there would be two less cats on this planet; us.

"Show yourself!" I quivered.

Suddenly, there was a thud as the cat jumped out from behind the reeds and landed in front of us.

"Browntail!" both me and Stormheart yowled at once.

"I was listening to you guys talking about how you were going to steal some prey," he said, "And I wanted to come"

"You didn't have to follow us, geez" vented Stormheart, "We thought you were the murderer!"

"Yeah, why didn't you just ask if you could come?" I chipped in

Browntail looked embarrassed and shuffled his paws. "I … I knew you would just run off on your own even if I had asked"

We both looked at each other, feeling slightly guilty. This was true. The number of times we had done such in the past was uncountable.

"Fine," Stormheart said finally, "You can come with us. But next time, just ask us, okay?"

His amber eyes brightened as he nodded gleefully. "Yes, I'll do that"

"But no talking. We're nearly on ShadowClan territory. I don't know about you, but I don't really know exactly where their camp is. I don't want to start a war, just because you were being loud, okay?" Stormheart glared down at Browntail harshly.

He opened his mouth to respond and then shut it again, and nodded.

We continued to ShadowClan in silence. When we reached the tall, dense fir trees that signified the territory of ShadowClan, we split up, planning to meet back in two hours with whatever we could catch. I headed over to a clump of rocks and crouched behind them.

I waited for about 10-20 minutes for a little antechinus to scurry onto the rock. It looked left and right, but didn't see me in my hiding place. I crept closer, keeping my body low to the floor. When the little rodent was least suspecting, I leaped onto the rock, grabbed the creature in my jaws and bit down onto it. From what I could see, it was dead, but the silly little rodents have a knack of pretending to be dead so their predator would put them down and the cheeky blight would run away, very much alive. I put it on the ground, but was prepared for its retaliation. Sure enough, it attempted to escape, but I merely grabbed it in my jaws again and repeated the process. Sure enough, it was dead a second bite around.

We met back at the border as planned. As well as the antechinus, I had caught a small bird, a mouse and two frogs. I could barely fit them all in my mouth, and had to tie the antechinus and the mouse's tails together so I could carry them easier. Stormheart and Browntail both had their mouths full with prey as well, and it was in victory that we made our way back to the camp.

The sun was peeping over the horizon when we got back, its rays of golden light splitting the darkness in half. Again, the forest came to life with various birds and the cats. The sound had returned. Even though I was tired, and my paws weary, we were victorious in our mission and we had lived, we had survived the night.

We were greeted by Ocelotfur, who said he had been worried when the three of them were reported missing. The other warriors rose from their den and exclaimed in delight when they saw the food. Stormheart, Browntail and I were treated like heroes, our brave actions had undoubtedly saved a few cats from starvation.


End file.
